When Apple launched
its iPhone 4 earlier this summer, the phone was supposed to be
available in both black and white variants. Black models started
shipping right away, while there was supposed to be a slight delay
for the white models.

As time went on, however, Apple began
to waver a bit when it came to a definite shipping time for the
white iPhone. In late July, the company issued
the following statement:

White models of
Apple's new iPhone 4 have continued to be more challenging to
manufacture than we originally expected, and as a result they will
not be available until later this year. The availability of the more
popular iPhone 4 black models is not affected.

Now it appears that the white iPhone 4
is going to be delayed even further -- until Spring 2011. John
Paczkowski of the Wall
Street Journal's Digital Daily says that he received
official confirmation from Apple about the prolonged delay.

There has been plenty of speculation as
to why the white iPhone has been delayed, but the general consensus
is that Apple (actually, Steve Jobs) is so obsessed with perfection
that the paint thickness/color matching on the white iPhone 4 has not
been up to par. Specifically, Apple manufacturing partners are having
problems matching the specific shade of white on the front of the
phone with the white Home button according
to Pocket-lint.

However, the question remains, will
people even care anymore by the time Spring 2011 rolls around?
Everyone who wanted an iPhone 4 is likely to have one by that point
and the inevitable iPhone 5/iPhone 4G will be right around the
corner.

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Nah it has to do with white paint not sticking to the stupid glass surface properly. Now, if Apple hadn't used glass everywhere they wouldn't have this problem. Nor the problem of twice as many insurance claims for broken iphone4s than iphone3s. This is because there is twice the glass to crack!!!Form before function....

But what this also implies is that there will be NO physical change in the next iPhone design.

If Apple sticks to it's yearly refresh schedule and the "white" iPhone doesn't come out until after the refresh announcement, then it is doubtful that any change of physical hardware will happen. Most likely it will be a similar refresh as the 3G->3GS, or perhaps no performance increase but dual radios/4G.

I've said before, white is the most difficult color to paint, but I don't for a minute believe that with the resources that Apple and Foxconn have that the problem couldn't be solved within a month at worst. How many iPods have Apple and Foxconn painted white before? They've painted glass white before too. Don't buy the explanation for a minute.

No, something else is a foot, and I honestly believe that the next refresh will be so minor and insignifigant, that a white phone may be one of the big selling points. Now, what moron actually want's a white phone that is sure to yellow after a few months (White iPods and Macbooks anyone). Or for that matter, with Android being at least on par with the iPhone (or better), why even care anymore about fruit.

I doubt that will end up being true. Apple isn't stupid enough to skip a year just over this. There will be a new iPhone in time to catch all the 3Gs buyers whose contracts are ending next summer/fall. I would put money on it.

I wonder if Apple will have fixed its locked screen security flaw by then, or whether buyers of the white "magical" iPhone 4 will have their personal info still in jeopardy due to Apple's moronically incompetent security.

Note no sarcasm tags, I'm actually unsure of whether they will deem it worthwhile to protect their customers' privacy and fix that problem, given that it's taken them years to fix some of their past bugs... If you follow Apple for long enough you start to seriously wonder these things...

There will be no fix necessary. The white iphone when ready will be so beautiful that any would be thief will be twitterpated into staring at it, rendering such a person incapable of stealing personal info.

Well in my opinion (and you know what they say about opinions, they're a**holes like me, er wait, nm) Apple has bought into their own PR buzz more and more since the release of the iPhone. No doubt that the iPod and iPhone made a huge splash in their respective markets, but all we've gotten out of Apple since then is excuses why something should work, or what we're doing wrong.

The yellow screen issue comes to mind at this juncture. Which I'm sure was really caused by people staring at the screen at the wrong viewing angle. This would cause the screen to "appear" yellow when in fact it was operating correctly.

"A politician stumbles over himself... Then they pick it out. They edit it. He runs the clip, and then he makes a funny face, and the whole audience has a Pavlovian response." -- Joe Scarborough on John Stewart over Jim Cramer